News
This is the News section of the website, it is for⦠news. It includes an RSS feed that you can subscribe to so you donāt have to manually check. Correction, I thought it did, dunno what to do now.
ę„ęę„ the 3rd
I couldnāt find anything particularly significant about this day, so I got a bit lazy.
Completion of the Reshuffle
After a lot of pain, the LoreBook Reshuffle is finally at an endā¦as far as the public articles are concerned. All the public articles have been gone through and re-written to make them better.
Reflecting on my decision to do this, I have come to the conclusion it was probably a bad idea and Iām never going to do anything like this againā¦in English, at least.
The issue is that very little new stuff was created, I was just doing the same thing again.
The upside is that everything should now have the same general quality and it made me realize I can write way more if I really force myself to, so thatās good.
Currently only the Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai article is āincompleteā reshuffle-wise, but thatās just because I decided to hold that off for after I re-watch the series again and after I finish re-reading it.
New Articles?
I will gradually start adding articles to the wiki is various stages of completion. During the Reshuffle, I realized how dumb it was to not make some articles public when I remembered how bare-bones the Charlotte article had been for so long. My current criteria is if something has the same amount of content, or more, than Charlotte then Iāll make it public.
Soon-ish, Iāll be making a lot of those articles public.
The articles I believe that are most likely to go public at this time are:
- Code Geass
- Evangelion(!)
- Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor
- Little Witch Academia(!)
- Mandagon
- Mili(!)
- Shūmatsu no Izetta
Reviews
Iāve decided that the review-only-article compromise I came up with was stupid and Iāll gradually be adapting many of those reviews into their own articles. Whatās clear to me now is that some of those reviews will also be deleted entirely, because outside of a few sentences I have little else Iād want to say on them.
Itās possible the Review Collection will get deleted as well, but I donāt know about that just yet.
Blog-y Stuff
Media Managers
In a previous news post I complained about how none of the media managers on the market are decent. Sometime after that, though, I tried Plex. I can now safely say that Plex is the best media manager available on the market and none of the open-source alternatives are anywhere close to the quality of Plex.
Itās still not perfect for anime but Shoko + Plex makes it work.
Coppelion
Sometime ago I discovered a series called Coppelion and I decided to check it out. After watching the series, I decided to read the manga. Having finished both, I can honestly say that I enjoyed myself greatly.
The series is overall really good, but falls short in a number of waysA). The thing that annoys me the most is the clear anti-Nuclear-power messaging, as Iām in favor of Nuclear power overall.
Another thing that sort-of bummed me out was that I expected the series to be more grounded than it ended up being. Perhaps an opportunity for me to make my own story?
Under the Dog
Another potential future article! I watched the OVA not really expecting much and finding myself surprised and disappointed. Overall, I think itās the best example of gunfights and blood in anime (additionally showing that the medium can handle those) but the story itself leaves something to be desired. I may elaborate further in the future.
LASTEXILE
The LASTEXILE franchise (including Ao6) started driving me insane. I decided to go through the entire franchise and, after doing so, I started thinking about what I had just gone through. Iāll say right now that the series is deeply flawed (perhaps more so than Coppelion) but each entry has different reasons why. Thatās where I started losing my mind because I could hardly comprehend how each of them managed to be significantly flawed in completely different ways.
There will certainly be articles dedicated to these now that Iāve discovered this, but I canāt say for sure when.
Waning Crescent ę
It has taken me a while to make another such update, but here we are.
Despite the (seeming) lack of activity, I am still alive! Not only that, but the situation is better than it was beforeā¦even if that may not be obvious to readers.
Actual public work has been scarce, because Iāve mostly been doing stuff in the privacy of the playground. The Reshuffle should be done soon-ish, as Iāll be generally changing how I approach writing articlesā¦again.
Images!
Iāve gone ahead and changed the way the banners work on here. Previously, I used so-called āstandardā banners. Iāve been forced to stop using them due to bugs in the imagebox plugin that I am not skilled enough to fix. Instead, Iāve created a new standard banner which Iāll be using on the articles from now on.
Here are two examples Iāve created so far:
Note that the first one is a test image I created to figure out this new standard. This doesnāt mean the Evangelion article is coming anytime soon.
Iāll gradually replace most of the banners in the articles with these images.
Reshuffle Status
The Reshuffle has been completed as far as the Minor re-writes are concerned, but the major re-writes are still to be done. The first of these will be The Final Station, and thatās as much as Iāll say on the subject for now.
When itāll be done is still unknown, but I will most definitely finish the Reshuffle before the year ends, and then Iāll start to add new articles more quickly than before.
One issue is that Iām a perfectionist, so making my work public makes me anxious if I think itās not good enough.
Minor Changes
Hyphenation
I think Iāll be using the hyphen more often in writing from now on. This is currently most obvious on here (re-write; re-watch).
Blog-y Stuff
Patlabor
Iāve been thoroughly enjoying myself going through the Patlabor franchise, especially since Iāve re-watched the OVA.
Currently Iām going through the TV anime, and then Iāll be moving through the OVA. Afterwards, who knows?
I also thank this guy for sending me the Patlabor PC-98 game again!
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Iāve finished re-watching the original series just today, and I forgot how good the series was (this was only my second watch), which has gotten me into an overall Evangelion mood. Currently Iām thinking of re-reading the Ikari Shinji Raising Project or playing the Neon Genesis Evangelion 2 PSP game.
ā¦The article is still going to take a while.
First of ļ¼ę
I had initially planned for this update to come sooner, and I called it the āSpring Updateā, but spring ended 25 days ago, so I decided to release this now. I didnāt get as much done as I wanted to, but the real world will often interrupt our plans, so thereās nothing I can really do about that.
Copyright
Iāve decided to explicitly copyright the content on this wiki for a variety of reasons I will not bother explaining. At some point I will release terms of use or something like it to make it clear what readers can and cannot do with the content here.
I will, however, share one of the reasons Iāve decided to copyright the content explicitly: so-called generative AI. The spread of generative AI has alarmed me, and was the last thing that made me realize copyright is ultimately a good thing. Consequently, any use of my content in the training of AI, or anything similar, is strictly prohibited.
I think thatās the most important change that has occurred. Over the course of the Reshuffle I will make some things more explicit in other ways (adding exceptions to the copyright for example), but for now that should do.
LoreBook Reshuffle Update
While I was planning to specify which articles I updated, I decided not to bother, and to instead let the changes āspeak for themselvesā. I planned to say which articles Iāve added, but I honestly forgot which ones I did add. Instead, Iāll share some of the articles I still have to get through:
- Minor Rewrite
- Serious Rewrite
I wonāt be sharing all of the ones Iāll be getting toā¦because that would be a list of almost everything thatās currently still public and stuff that isnāt yet public.
Change to Images
I made a few changes to how I deal with images on this wiki. First, I changed the sizes of the banners I used before, making them more āstandardā. Second, I started uploading images to the wiki itself, rather than relying on an external host. Third, I had considered switching to the use of the JXL format for my images, rather than relying on PNG. To elaborate a bit further on the last point, the JXL format has impressed me quite a bit, so I thought of switching to it to save space and making loading the images a bit faster. Unfortunately, JXL is not yet properly supported in web browsers or on image viewers, so I donāt think Iāll switch just yet. I have, however, already uploaded the JXL images to the wiki and theyāre a fraction of the size of the PNG ones.
Additional Image Changes
In addition to the changes to the sizes of the images (excluding small banners), I will almost certainly change the typefaces I use for them. Iāll either use the typefaces I used prior (such as Vollkorn) or Iāll use ones Iāll create myself. This may happen sooner rather than later, as Iām progressing fairly well with my first typeface.
To be more specific about what I mean in regards to the typefaces. I mean that Iāll probably start creating my own versions of the official logos to use on the banners and such, because many of them are not well-suited for banners and, in this way, I may avoid potential future copyright issues as well. Iāll elaborate a bit further on that later.
Minor Changes
Rounge textboard
I deleted the rounge text board as it wasnāt being used at all. In hindsight, Iām kind of embarrassed that I even tried.
Iāll try to find some other convenient way to contact me. Iāve considered a Retrospring, copying my peer.
Font > Type
Iāve decided to shift from using the term āfontā to ātypeā/ātypefaceā instead, as thatās the more correct term. This is additionally because I havenāt seen anyone try to correct the mis-identificationA), so Iāll try to lead the way (massive ego).
Japanese in the Wiki
Iāve decided to abandon the use of Japanese in the titles of articles, as I realized it makes my life more difficult. The titles will now be written according to aniDBās rules, just that Iāll be using diacritics.
Additionally, Iām still playing around with different ruby displays, which are visible on the Wiki Notes article.
Misc Changes to appearance
Iāve gone and changed the appearance of the wiki slightly, fixing the issue where the mobile version still displayed the default ādokuā look.
I removed the table of contents from the sidebar back to the default location. This is mostly because the sidebar TOC kept bothering me.
Typeface Changes
Iāve decided to change the typefaces I use on this wiki, because Iāve gotten a bit sick of them. My specific issues were that I didnāt like the way the Kana looked, and some features didnāt work as they should have, mostly related to diacritics of all things.
The Mincho/Serif type was changed to BIZ UDPMincho Thatās what I planned, but after trying it out I noticed it didnāt look as good as the previous one, so I switched back. The Gothic/Sans-Serif type was changed to M Plus 1p, and Iāve gotten Rounded M Plus 1c to complement it just in case.
While I did say Iām progressing fairly well with my own first typeface, I still think itāll take a while before I can actually use it. Itās also a Gothic typeface, and I donāt have a Mincho one yet.
More blog-y stuff
Numerical Ratings suck, but...
For a while now Iāve been assigning things (mostly anime and manga) numerical ratings between 1-10 (with .5s mixed in as well), and while I have defined quite clearly what each number represents, I realized a while ago that numbers are not great at communicating the quality of something, or whether I even like it or not.
As an example, letās use Mirai Nikki, a series I watched recently. Iām almost certainly going to add a review/article dedicated to it, where Iāll communicate my thoughts in detail (hopefully). I assigned the anime a rating of 8/10. An ā8ā means āgreatā to me. This number (and even the word) doesnāt explain what I think about it, it just says I think itās āgreatā. It doesnāt communicate what issues there were, how well executed its concepts were, how well communicated its themes were, how sensible the characters were, etc. Itās just a number. I leave numerical ratings outside of my reviews for this reason. I should also note that Iāve actually changed the rating from 8 to a 7.5, because I realized many of the issues with the series are more serious than I previously thought.
Despite this, I see numerical ratings as a necessary evil, and I continue to rate with numbers anyway.
Legal High
Iāve recently started watching Legal High, and Iām enjoying myself very much. It is very well constructed, and the jokes are very well written. Iāve already finished the first season, and Iām moving onto the special. Whether Iāll write anything about it in the future is still to be seen.
Media Manager Frustrations
Media managers deeply frustrate me and almost all of the issues can be boiled down to me not being able to manage the metadata for individual episodes, or not being able to manually edit metadata. Jellyfin is somewhat tolerable in this regard, but the Shoko Suite is extremely frustrating. I say this as someone whoās been a user of the Shoko suite for 5 or so years at this point, and Shoko is not good. Iām only using it because there is no better alternative, which reflects badly on everything else. My frustration is so deep that I may find myself creating my own alternative just so I wonāt have to deal with Shoko anymore.
General Update
The first draft of this update was written a very long time ago, but Iāve finally gotten it out.
ćØćć re-write
Iāve managed to get started on a re-write of the ćØćć article, having started with Misaka Mikoto, which Iām now using as a template to base the rest of the re-write off of. As part of the re-write, I had been making notes from all the Toaru media Iāve currently gone through, but I stopped doing that a while ago to focus on other boring stuff. Misakaās article came first because sheās the character I have the most notes about. The only other characters with a comparable number of notes would be Shokuhou Misaki and Hokaze Junko, but I donāt know when Iāll get around to their articles. becauseā¦
LoreBook Reshuffle
In another minor update I mentioned a change in direction, and I have since dubbed it āThe LoreBook Reshuffle.ā Despite its name, itās not limited to the LoreBook and Iām not shuffling anything. Unlike the previous changes in direction, Iāve decided to take this one a little more seriously, so Iāll be going through all the articles Iāve currently gotten writtenā¦including ones in the playground.
The Reshuffle will involve me evaluating the quality of an article, as well as any potential future expansion, and then deciding what to do with it. This includes deleting a few, so some things are just gone.
The articles Iāve managed to get to so far include:
-
- Removed many of the words, reducing the size of the article significantly.
- Finished rewriting most of the definitions. No longer are they merely copied from Wiktionary, but slightly reworded.
- Added examples to a few of the words, but these are more for fun than anything else.
- Added English-7 spellings to some of the entries, but Iām not sure if Iāll continue this or not.
- Added a Quotes section, because it fits with the rest of the article.
- Other miscellaneous changes, such as a general re-write.
- Non-changes: The names section was kept mostly intact.
-
- I rewrote the article somewhat.
-
- Iāve finally gotten around to finishing the archivicleā¦but all I really did was fix the images.
-
- A concept that was hiding in the playground.
Another change Iāve decided to go through with is the elimination of the concept of āan article in constructionā as I found it doesnāt make sense to have that on a personal wiki, when I can edit articles whenever I want. As part of the Reshuffle, Iāll be removing the construction banner and the tag from articles.
Reviews will also probably go through a change, but I donāt know what kind so I wonāt say anything. This also applies to the playground.
Other
Iāve decided to start writing more personal thoughts on media and the like, possibly commentaries and such. However, this will almost certainly have to wait until the Reshuffle is complete.
Considering how often I use Japanese writing on this wiki, Iāve thought about creating an article thatās just a table of the Kanas, which I can then point people to. Nothing concrete yet.
Current
ē„ć®ćæćē„ćć»ć«ć¤
I went through and watched all of Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai again and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Although the first season was a little shaky, it turned out to be better than I rememberedA). Since the manga has ćµćććŖ, Iāll be reading that as well.
Iāve written up a few thoughts, and Iāll try to integrate them into the current article as soon as possible.
CrossCode
Iāve been playing CrossCode and enjoying myself a lotā¦perhaps too much. The story really picked up recently, so Iām itching to learn more.
ććŖćććććććęćć㯠& Shadows House
Started ććŖćć just a few days ago, and while it isnāt fantastic, it is okay. However, the first episode is very rushed which turned me off a little. The next two episodes were comparatively fine, so Iāll be sticking around with it.
Iāve only watched the first episode of Shadows House, as Iām aiming to finish ććŖćć first, but Iām already intrigued. However, itās really obvious that itās adapted from numerous shorter storiesā¦perhaps 4ć³ć? I havenāt bothered to check the original yet. Theyāre also stitched together a little awkwardly.
Update Names
Starting with the next update, Iāve decided to come up with a naming scheme for them. The current one Iām thinking of is to name the update after a recent holiday/day of interest. By the next update, Iāll come up with a proper one.
Another another minor Update
Iāve published a new article which I had been working on for months. Itās called What if Academy City existed? and Iām fairly proud of it.
Besides that, Iāve made some misc changes. The most significant change was that I changed the font(s) for the site. I think it looks nice now, although Iām disappointed the serif font didnāt look that great for the main text.
The other change was that I updated the aphorism generators. By āupdateā I mean I remade them and cleaned up their code. I hadnāt actually checked it before I uploaded them, so when I finally did check it, I found a mess. They should be somewhat ālighterā than before. Iāve also changed the font, to differentiate āmineā from the originals, seeing as Kazamatsuri's site is still functioning.
Thatās about it.
More Current
I donāt know what I could put here, besides how hungry I feel.
Ninjaā¦out!